Airbnb to let neighbors report on bad hosts

Next month, Airbnb is going to enable neighbors to provide comments on nearby hosts, a company executive said on Monday.

The virtual comment box will debut in Japan and then roll out worldwide, said Yasuyuki Tanabe, the head of the short-term rental giant's Japan operation, told Tokyo officials on Monday, according to a report by Bloomberg News.

This is bad news for rude hosts and partying guests.

Details on how the information would be posted were sketchy. The comments would not automatically appear on Airbnb. The plan appears to be that the company's customer service staff will look for patterns and then take action as needed.

It's not clear if the information will be kept anonymous, either.

In Japan specifically, Airbnb is battling a government effort to restrict short-term rental deals. The national government has released guidelines for home sharing.

Local municipalities have the option to agree or not to the guidelines, which would limit Airbnb and other hosts to only renting to guests who stay for a minimum of a week -- drastically reducing the potential business growth.

Across the globe, Airbnb is responding to complaints by some neighborhood groups about hosts allowing partygoers to rent houses and be unruly as well as about violating zoning laws, condo association boards, and other rules.

A lot of short-term rentals are illegal in New Orleans. But there are still 2,400 to 4,000 “rogue hotels," and Airbnb is getting blamed, noted a recent New York Times report.

Back in Japan, the company is also introducing some other changes that are specific to the local market, where it aims to make in-roads. Details at Bloomberg News.